author profile
movement of the 1970s, of the new
opportunities that were opening up for
women. She looked forward to a more
exciting life, less defined by domestic
duties once her two elder children
had largely grown up. But the arrival
of Donna-Faye threatened to consign
her once again to the role of domestic
drudge from which she thought she had
nearly escaped. About 22 months after
the birth of Donna-Faye, Pat has had
enough, and simply leaves.
Med is devastated. But he knows he
must go on, for the sake of little Donna-
Faye. The novel outlines what happens
to the family after Pat's departure, and
focuses on the close relationship between
Med and Donna-Faye.
'The father-daughter relationship is
one we don't often celebrate in Australia,'
says Caroline. 'There are lots of books
describing the relationships between
mums and daughters, between sisters,
and between husbands and wives. But
dads and their daughters -- that's a really
special bond. And in this novel I wanted
to explore that relationship more than
anything.'
Two aspects of the novel really stand
out on a first reading. First, Caroline's
ability to make the book sound so
authentically Australian, without resorting
to phony and confected stereotypes that
have nothing to do with how ordinary
Australians live their lives.You won't find
here any crocodile wrestlers, bushwhackers
or bronzed blokes manfully rescuing
distressed swimmers from the surf.What
you will find are experiences that all
Australians will recognise: regular trips
to Coles and Kmart, taking your green
recyclable Woollies bag to the shops,
visits to McDonalds, eating Rice-a-Riso
in the 1970s, watching Hey Hey and
A Country Practice on television in the
1980s, smoking 'Winnie Blues', and kids
pushing Vegemite-and-butter wor ms
through the holes in Vita-Weat biscuits.
It's this accumulation of small details of
everyday life in the Australian suburbs that
imbue the book with such astonishing
authenticity.
The second impressive feature of the
novel is Caroline's ability to not only
uncannily capture the voice of man,
but a man who is a generation older
than her. Med utters lots of outdated
expressions, such as 'lady lawyer',
'women's libber' and 'skedaddle'. It's
expressions such as these -- anachronistic
to younger ears but still uttered by many
older Australians -- that make the voice
of Med sound so real.
I ask Carolyn how important it
was to populate the novel with such
authentically ordinary Australians. 'It was
critically important,' she says. 'When I
decided I was going to write novels,
I knew that I wanted to tell stories that
would mean something to my people --
my tribe. I know that a lot of Australian
literature is written about the bush and
about the beach. But let's face it -- 90%
of us live in the suburbs. We live in brick-
veneer houses.We go to state schools.We
work at ordinary jobs and ear n middle
incomes. And that's our lives. To just
dismiss that ... I mean, that is a critical
part of our human experience. We're not
crocodile wranglers or kangaroo shooters.
We're not even all bodysurfers. We're
ordinary p
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it's like to be the police officer" and
"This is what it's like to be the doctor
in the hospital".
'I also feel that we're not being
told the whole truth about child
protection. On one hand you see stories
in the newspaper about very happy
foster parents and how marvellous and
community-minded they must be for
taking in these children. And on the
other hand, you'd hear stories of the
most outrageous abuse. And I thought,
"How can those two things be true?
There must be something wrong with
the system if children are still tur ning up
dead in a duckpond."'
Caroline laments the legal
muzzles now placed on jour nalists
that prevent them from talking to
people associated with crimes against
children, such as medical staff and
the siblings of victims -- even decades
after the crime was committed.
'You don't like to think to yourself
that people are manipulating the truth
about what's happening to our children,
but they are.'
Fiction has been criticised in recent
years for its alleged lack of relevance to
everyday life. But given the increasing
wariness and reluctance of governments
and corporations to disclose information,
we may have to -- ironically -- rely
This month's
Page-turner
‘The father-daughter relationship is one we don’t often
celebrate in Australia ... In this novel I wanted to explore
that relationship more than anything.’